Charlotte Gutsell (1819-1891)
}} Charlotte was the daughter of convicts. 1. Charlotte's mother was the convict Fanny Gutsell (Frances Gutsell nee Tomsett) who arrived in Sydney on 18 Jun 1815 at the age of 29 aboard the Northampton after being convicted for 7 years on 21 Mar 1814 in the Lewes, Sussex Assizes. (Fanny was a pet-name for Frances. In the 1822 muster of New South Wales she is shown not as Fanny Gutsell but as Frances Gutsell. It is also the name given for their mother on the birth records for Charlotte & her sisters Frances & Mary, and on the death records for Charlotte & Mary.) On the birth records of Charlotte (1819), and her sisters Frances (1817) & Mary (1822), and on the death records of both Charlotte & Mary, it is stated that their father's name was John Gutsell. This means that her mother Fanny was a married woman when she was transported to Sydney, Australia, in 1815. It also means that her father joined their mother in New South Wales. 2. Charlotte's father was the convict John Gold (Gould) who arrived in Sydney 7 months later on 18 January 1816 at the age of 31 aboard the Fanny after being convicted for 7 years on 11 Jul 1814 in the Canterbury, Kent Assizes. John Gould was an alias, Gould being the maiden surname of his mother. John Gould was Fanny Gutsell's husband John Gutsell. Kent is the county immediately to the right of Sussex, and it was common for people to travel between the counties of Sussex and Kent. Frances' father is not the convict John Gutsell who arrived in Sydney in mid-1820 aboard the Eliza, far to late to be the father of Frances or her sisters. The matter of Frances' parents, the alias that her father was using, and the details contained in the records, is more fully discussed in the entries for her parents. Charlotte's marriages Charlotte's first husband was Henry Alce who she married in 1834 when she was 15 and he was about 24. Henry Alce was a master mariner and is believed to have died at sea about 1836, possibly on the way to Sydney from the Hawkesbury. (Alce is the correct spelling for this surname. Some have incorrectly changed it into Alice, and changed her name to Charlotte Alice Gutsell.) Charlotte's second husband was the scotsman and lay-preacher John Laughton who she married in 1838 when she was 18 and he was 23. John Laughton arrived in Australia on 21 March 1836. He was a ship's carpenter on the ship Stirling Castle which was captained by the famous Captain Frazer. John jumped ship in Sydney, New South Wales. He came to the Hawkesbury River because of his ship building and carpentry interests. (Please note that it was not her husband but another different John Laughton who arrived in Sydney, New South Wales on 5 July 1835 as a convict on board the Marquis of Huntley.) The record of her marriage confirms that, as her husband was not a convict but a freeman, and because she had been born a freewoman in the colony, they did need to obtain the Governor's permission to marry. In total Charlotte gave birth to her many children over a 28 year period from the ages of 16 to 44.